Railway Station

On my way from Point A to Point B, my train stopped at a very active platform (Point A.5?) with a very derelict and run down train station. Naturally I decided that Point B could wait. Let's check this place out first!

Information was sparce, but I did manage to find some photos of it from the good old days of pre-abandonment. 

(Photo not mine, obviously)

This photograph was taken in the last week of October 1884, allegedly when the station and line were approaching the end of their construction. It was taken by a photographer from Warsaw named Konrad Brandel who accompanied the railway commission's technical inspection of the building.

What's interesting is that it's surrounded by railway lines, whereas today the lines are only on the far side. 

(Photo not mine, obviously)

This photo was taken in the 1930s, and things haven't really changed an awful lot. At some point between then and now the archways in the tower were bricked up, which is a shame. I bet the view from up there is pretty awesome. Nevertheless, aesthetically it's a really cool building. Look closely and you can see that the tower also had a clock. 

Let's slip inside!

Five minutes of ungraceful squeezing brought me into the old ticket area, where I was suddenly hit by the realisation that this was quite possibly a bleak vision of the future. The platform was still operating but nobody needs a human to buy a ticket anymore, so places like this are becoming increasingly redundant. This fate likely awaits many a train station. 

A century ago this would have had people lining up for tickets. Now it's just three empty windows decorated by screaming broccoli. 

The bricked up doorway here leads to the tower and the upper floors, which is quite infuriating. I guess this is going to be a ground floor mooch.

I've seen photos of the fire brigade hosing down the tower in 2015, so perhaps the powers-that-be decided to brick up access to the upper floors, just so that even if the ground floor was accessed, the trespassers would be kept downstairs. 

I've had conflicting sources of when the station opened. One publication from 1998 gives the official date of the line opening as 1882, naming the stations architect as Adolf Schimmelfenig. This is the information commonly regurgitated by a local museum, so at first glance it looks fairly legitimate. 

But then an issue of the Warsaw Gazette, dated January 1885, described the stations opening. Another magazine from earlier that month reported preparations for the opening ceremony, as well as showing the new train timetable. And of course, there's a photo from 1884 that I can credit to an actual photographer doing an inspection prior to the building being completed.

So as much as I hate to shit on a museum, the primary sources outweigh what they say. 

But that same museum also said that Poland has had very good relations with the United States for three hundred years, even though Poland wasn't really Poland for a good chunk of that time, and the United States hasn't yet reached its three hundredth birthday. They also claimed that the Warsaw Uprising was the largest urban battle of the second world war, completely dismissing the Battle of Stalingrad. But hey-ho. 

Here's where the station staff would have worked. Hopefully they had seats. 

It's interesting to note that when this station was built, Poland wasn't Poland as we know it today. It was divided among the Russians, the Germans and the Austrians. One source says that this train line provided a strategic route between Europe and the Russian empire, while another says that the Russians were very reluctant to open it because they wanted to keep their western territory in poor economic condition for as long as possible. 

Once the railway station was built, the area did thrive. One article talks of how "the most senior lord and lady" arrived here with their children to meet Grigory Zinoviev, who was a prominent Soviet politician and associate of Lenin. I can't find a date for the article, but since they were said to be discussing military stuff concerning Austria, I'm guessing it was during the first world war.

The article described how the station was decorated with flags and how the platform was made into a flower garden. It all sounds very spectacular. I wonder what "the most senior lord" would think if he could see it now. 

Onto the best part of any abandoned building, the toilets!

Still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs. 

Beyond the ticket area and the toilets, the train station is pretty bland. It’s a shame. It looks good, but isn’t really. A bit like me.

 I'm guessing some of these rooms may have been offices. Apparently there were two restaurants here, one for first class passengers and one for peasants. I assume one of these was on the ground floor, but without access to the upper floors, who can say for sure?

During the first world war, Poland-to-be was the epicentre of the Eastern front, and everyone who had a chunk of Poland promised the Polish people that they'd have their independence if they helped. Russia eventually withdrew, and then the Germans were defeated and humiliated on the global stage, and Poland was temporarily independent as a result. 

This station apparently still remained important after Poland gained its independence although the second world war later diminished its use somewhat. I guess the Germans had other uses for the train lines. 

But it's apparently the fall of the Soviet Union that led to this station closing, due to ill-conceived railway reforms once Poland became free once again.

Which means this isn't a vision of the future at all. This is just a vision of what might happen if a power-mad nutcase annexes an entire country just because he's greedy.

Oh wait... 

Anyhoo... the station closed its doors for good in 2007, and it has remained derelict ever since. It's pretty sad. And with the platform still active and not relying on the building whatsoever, it's unlikely they'll ever do anything with it. 

In 2018 banners were hung on the station building, advertising its renovation. Nothing came from it, and the banners were eventually removed. The only change was that all of the trees were removed from outside. These are the same trees visible in the 1930s photo. They were still there, nearly a century later. I'm a little bit sad about that. I mean, if removing the trees was vital to the renovation, then I can see some argument for it. But the renovation didn't happen so all they've really done is make the area a little bit shitter. 

As I walked away, I looked up at the upstairs windows. This one was wide open, and I felt a little bit sad that I couldn't see what was up there. Perhaps I should come back with a ladder. 

In conclusion, this train station was a little bit bland and empty, but it might not have been, and finding out for sure is the "exploring" part of "urban exploring." It was totally worth having to get a later train to where I was going. This isn't the UK, so I knew another train would be along shortly, and wouldn't decimate my bank balance. 

Bland or not, just think how many people have passed through here from 1885 until 2009. It's incredible to think about. That's the sort of thing I always take time to ponder when I go to places like this. Everywhere mattered to someone once, and I try to put myself in their shoes.

That's all I've got. If you like my blogs, or if you just want to moan about them, then follow me on social media. I'm on the internet's toilet, Facebook, and I'm also on Instagram too for some reason. But far superior, in that you actually see who you're following and the algorithms aren't just trying to make you angry to exploit your engagement, are Bluesky, Vero and Cara. They're all adequate replacements for Twitter and Instagram, the latter two aimed towards creative people. I would like to see everyone just abandon Facebook and Instagram for these platforms someday. 

I can dream. 

Thanks for reading!